Low-Light Reef

[atreis]

My last tank was parted out a couple years ago when my new house was nearing completion.  (Some people from this group took some of the stuff, too.)

It's taken a while, but I've now really started the new tank, and plan to have it up and running within a month or two.  My last tank was a 200g system with a 100g main tank, 75g refugium, and another 25g in sump.  It was lit by some 900 watts of MH and T5, chilled using an large AquaLogic, 400 watts in pumps, etc ....

Anyway, design requirements:

• Energy Efficient (relatively) - no more than 350 watts continuous draw, plus heater/chiller.
• Natural Filtration (just like my old tank) - no skimmer
• Self-Contained - everything has to fit inside the stand (yes, I could run holes through the floor into the basement and put stuff down there, but that would make it hard to stay within 350 watts - the head height to get water back up from down there would mean having a much larger pump)
• Living Room - it has to live in the living room, where it will be enjoyed year round instead of just in the winter.  My old tank was in the basement which really only gets used in my household during the winter.
• Quiet - can't disrupt other activities that happen in the living room

Here's a couple pictures of the tank and stand:


I built the stand (most of it) myself last winter.  It's basic 2x4 construction with a solid oak skin.  The workmanship isn't terribly good as I don't really have much in terms of furniture making skills, but from the exterior it looks decent enough.  I bought the doors from Ikea - they were beyond my abilities.  They mounted in such a way that they lift off in order to provide easy and full access to the inside.

The tank is from GlassCages (also bought last winter - it's taken me a while).  It's a 100g, 6 foot long, 18 inches deep, 17 inches tall, drilled with two overflows, and has StarFire for the front panel.  It's shallow so that the relatively low level of light I have can be effective.

Lighting:
2 3' Perfecto SO T-8 actinics.  (60 watts - and inexpensive too)
1 twin-tube 3' T-5 GLO fixture with Actinic White bulbs.  (78 watts - very nice fixture, you can see it sticking up a little behind the other two fixtures in the photos above)

The SO actinics are side-by-side at the front.  The T-5 fixture sits between the overflows and will light the rocks there.  Once there are rocks there.

A look under the tank:



Filtration:
Water from the right-hand overflow will flow primarily into the container on the far right, which is the main sump.  It'll then be returned back to the tank.  The bucket inside the sump has a large hole drilled in the side near the bottom, and will be filled with live rock.  The small pump is used for top-off, controlled by the pair of float switches (one is meant to control the water depth - the other is an emergency cut-off in case the first one fails).  The heater will be in this sump too.  The temp sensor for the heater is in the right-hand overflow.  The whole setup is controlled by an AquaController Jr (from my old tank).  The return pump is a Mag 1200 from my old tank.  (110 watts)

Water flow from the left-hand overflow is controlled by a valve.  (The stand-pipe for that side will be a little lower than the other to insure that it always gets flow.)  The first container on the left will be a refugium containing Chaeto and is lit by a PC fixture attached to the lid of the container (16 watts).  Water then flows from there to the middle container, which will contain nothing but a DSB, and from there to the sump on the right.

The top-off water container is a small black container on the far right.

That's it.  I'm hoping that I don't need a chiller at all, but if I do I'll try to get away with using a pair of IceProbes.  If that's not enough then I'll hang the chiller above the bins inside the stand.  Since I don't plan to have stony corals I doubt I'll need a calcium reactor.  If I do, there's room in the stand for it (and room within the wattage budget for a pump for it).

If you're keeping track, that's 264 watts.  I don't really know what the total volume is, probably somewhere around 130-140 gallons.

What do I plan to keep?  A fairly light load of friendly fish ...  A couple tangs (that'll enjoy the nice long tank), clowns, chromis, not too much more.  Bubble Tip anemone (loved my last one - and they eat easily enough that they don't really need high light), mushrooms, and maybe some relatively low-light softies.  I'll just wait and see what works.

Long term plans: Replace the lighting with LED lights - but the prices have to come down.

[Reefd Up]

Interesting concept!  Can't wait to see it up and running! 

[lazylivin]

I like the tank dimensions. Looking forward to see this come together. Thanks for sharing the pictures and your vision. I think it is going to be really neat.

[micki]

Cool!  Looking forward to seeing more about this!

[Riderc82]

You can tell Obama is in office  .  Just kidding I am really looking forward to seeing your setup come alive.  I like the concept I have been trying to reduce the amount of electric my system uses as well.

[atreis]

A little more progress....  I have some rock in the tank, although not all that I intend.  No other life at this point.

Most of the rock is dead - CaribSea South Seas Dry rock.  I bought 20 lbs of live rock just to get things started.  (Those are the pieces that have some color to them.)  The CaribSea rock is quite nice, by the way.

Also, I haven't gotten all the dust from the sand cleaned off the glass yet.  It's progress, though.

[jd]

I love the dimensions of this tank. Long, wide and shallow is where its at!

[atreis]

It's very different from my old tank, which was only 4' long, but fairly deep.  I'm getting very anxious to see more life in it now that it's up and running.  Have to be patient though.

[UD Flyer]

Yea, I agree with JD, the dimensions are great and the rock looks good too.

I saw these in the Diver's Den on Dr. Fosters and Smith, it says their difficult to keep but require low light, which might be the reason their Difficult to keep. http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+4&ddid=72578

[HUNGER]

my question is how long are thos  containers going to last with salt water  great idea if they last my only fear is if one goes out the water damage

[atreis]

I had some tunicates for a while in my old tank.  They're really neat, but hard to keep alive.  I was only able to keep them alive for about six months.  They're filter feeders.  (I used bottled phytoplankton.)

I used the plastic bins with my old tank too.  Used them for three years without problems.  I really don't know how long they'll last as I've never had one fail, but yes, it is a concern.  Hopefully if one does fail it's not catastrophic.     Glass and acrylic tanks can fail too, so I don't really see reason to believe that one is better than another at this point.

This is a picture of one that I've been using to hold fresh RO water (bulge and all) for five years now without problems.  The pic is from my old house - it's now sitting on the basement floor in my new house, so if it did leak it would drain into the sump.

[HUNGER]

vary cool vary cool

[atreis]

More progress...  With pictures.

One change that's not visible - the buzzing from the cheap magnetic ballasts in those Perfecto NO fixtures that I'm using for Actinics got to me, so I ordered better electronic ballasts from 1000bulbs.com.  Very easy upgrade, no sound at all and I think the quality of the light is better too.

The tank, as it is today:


The current inhabitants (The Kole Tang was the first fish added - he lived alone in there for a couple weeks feasting on hair algae).


Just added today - Ricordea from Marine Solutions:

[micki]

Very cool atreis!